Design procurement for Rail Baltica main line through Riga enters second stage

Rail Baltica Joint Venture has begun the second stage of the procurement of the design and design supervision services for the Rail Baltica section Upeslejas–Riga–Misa in Latvia.

This main line section is 56km long, involves five municipalities and consists of three subsections: Upeslejas–Riga Central Station, Torņakalns–Imanta and Riga Airport–Misa River. It is one of the most complex sections owing to the fact that it crosses densely populated urban areas and includes the only tunnel on the whole Rail Baltica route. In addition, it interlinks the Rail Baltica International Passenger Stations in the Riga Central Station and the International Airport ‘Riga’.

The tender proposal submission deadline is 22 January 2019 and the contract duration will be 24 months during which the selected contractor will develop a master design, value engineering studies, spatial planning solutions and detailed technical design. In addition, the contract includes provision of the design author’s supervision during the construction phase of the line.

“Since Rail Baltica is the key missing link of the Trans-European Transport network, I carefully follow its progress,” said Kaspars Ozoliņš, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport of Latvia. “Design of the Upeslejas–Riga–Misa section is a natural continuation of the earlier signed detailed technical design of Riga International Airport RB passenger station civil structures and junction contract as well as the ongoing procurement for the detailed technical design and construction of the Riga Central Station junction. Moreover, in the nearest future, we plan to sign our first construction contract.”

According to the preliminary plans, 12 road viaducts, 16 rail viaducts, 13 segregated pedestrian crossings, five bridges, the second part of the railway overpass in Riga Airport as well as a cut-and-cover tunnel need to be designed for this Rail Baltica section.

“Design of the Rail Baltica line through Riga is a technically challenging task and we are pleased to see strong and experienced competitors taking part in the tender,” said Ignas Degutis, RB Rail AS acting CEO. “Our plan is to ensure that Rail Baltica line will be sustainably integrated in the environment of the Latvian capital and the neighbouring municipalities on the route. The selected designer will play the key role in defining technical solutions in cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders, while also providing solutions to address the expectations of the surrounding communities, such as visual integration of the railway in the landscape as well as tackling noise pollution.”

Six tenderers with extensive international knowledge and experience were preselected earlier in 2018 to take part in the second stage of the tender.

By now, the procurement is underway for six out of 11 sections. It is expected that the detailed technical design for the entire line will be procured by the end of 2021.